José Miguel Tarafá Armas (1869-1932) was born in Matanzas and educated in Havana and in the US. One of his greatest asset was his connections with government officials and US investors, gained during his time serving in the Cuban "Mambí" Army in the War of Independence.  During this time as a Colonel in the Cuban Liberation Army, Tarafá got to know very well the then mostly jungle of the Camagüey Province.  He realized that with railroad service the area had great potential since the northern part of the province was not serviced by neither the British owned United Railway that ran along the south nor Cornelius Van Horne's Cuba Company's Central Railroad that ran through the middle of the island. 

In 1907 a crisis in the Cuban sugar industry put it back in sound footing when sugar mills that continued to operate after the War of Independence with obsolete equipment had to shut down and the sugar mills that had made risky investments in new machinery and additional land went bankrupt. The Cuban political situation after the War of Independence began to stabilize after the resignation of President Tomás Estrada Palma which prompted a second US occupation that began in September 1906 and ended in February 1909. This stability allowed for increased foreign and local investment in the sugar industry.

• Central Flora in Bolondrón Matanzas Province established in 1868 by Florencio de Armas was and owned by The Flora Sugar Co. was Tarafá’s first sugar mill.

• Central Santa Filomena (until 1830 known as Central Enriqueta) also in Matanzas was acquired by Tarafá in 1909 from the National City Bank who had foreclosed on it from the heirs of Leandro Soler ( -1904) and renamed it Central Cuba. Title to Central Cuba was transferred on May 19, 1911 to Central Cuba Sugar Co. incorporated in New York in partnership with Regino Truffin. In 1917 Central Flora and Central Saratoga in addition to other land owned were consolidated into the Central Cuba Sugar Co.  Financing for the sugar mills acquired by Central Cuba Sugar Co. was facilitated by Manuel Rionda who was able to secure the financing in exchange for the exclusive right to sell their sugar. 

• Central Santo Domingo in Unión de Reyes Matanzas Province was established in 1805 by Domingo Aldama, in 1912 Central Cuba Sugar Co., acquired it from José María Blanco.

• Central Saratoga in Sabanillas del Encomendador Province of Matanzas plus land of nearby demolished sugar mills were acquired by Tarafá.

• Central Morón was built by Tarafá in 1912 under the corporate name Central Morón Sugar Co. but sold it in 1915 to Cuba Cane Sugar Corp. for $4.35 million.

In 1911, in partnership with Regino Truffin[1] and Horatio Rubens, Tarafá founded the Cuban Distilling Co., for which venture Manuel Rionda secured financing with the agreement that molasses needed for the distilling were supplied by his Central Francisco and Central Tiunucú.  The Júcaro and Morón Sugar & Land Co. was incorporated in New York by investors including the Mutual Life Assurance Co. of NY whose representative J. J. Warren was its first president. In 1908 the company built Central Jagüeyal but only three years later it was acquired by Tarafa’s Jagüeyal Sugar Co. Tarafá sold Central Jagüeyal in 1916 to the Cuba Cane Sugar Co.

But Tarafa's major venture was neither sugar mills nor distilling, but railroads. In 1906, Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma signed a law that authorized the government to contract with private companies for the construction and operation of twelve new railroad lines.  The law established a subsidy of $6,000 per kilometer built to be paid by the government, however, six years passed without any action taken as a result of the law.  In 1912, Tarafá bought the fifty mile Puerto Principe & Nuevitas Railroad, built in 1846 by Gaspar Betancourt Cisneros (1803-1866) under the corporate name Ferrocarriles de la Costa Norte y Sur.  On July 1912 a presidential decree granted Cia. del Ferrocarril del Norte y Sur the subsidy of $6,000 per kilometer to build two new railroad lines; Nuevitas-Caibarién and Camagüey-Santa Cruz del Sur. 

In 1914 Tarafá had not been successful in securing financing for the construction of the new railroad lines so he requested a two year extension from the Government to begin construction. As part of the financing process, in 1916 Tarafá received authorization to transfer the concessions granted the Cia. del Ferrocarril del Norte y Sur to the Júcaro–Morón Railways Co., a US corporation, in order to make the offering more attractive to US investors.  Financing was finally received after the creation of the Cuban Northern Railroad Co., a Delaware corporation that assumed all assets of the Júcaro–Morón Railways Co.

In 1918 Cuban Northern Railroad Co. merged with two other railroad companies; Ferrocarriles de Morón and Ferrocarril de Júcaro a San Fernando, retaining the Cuban Northern Railroad Co. name.  In 1924 the Cia. Ferrocarriles Consolidados de Cuba resulted from the consolidation of The Cuba Railroad Co., a subsidiary of the Cuba Company, the Camaguey and Nuevitas Railway Co. and the Cuban Northern Railroad Co.  The creation of the Cia. Ferrocarriles Consolidados de Cuba was the result of Tarafá's success in having the "Tarafá Bill" approved in 1923 by then president of the Republic Alfredo Zayas Alfonso.  By virtue of this law, all foreign owned sugar mills had to use the Cia. Ferrocarriles Consolidados de Cuba to transport their sugar.

The Tarafá Bill as passed by the Cuban House of Representatives on August 10, 1923 provided that no exportation of sugar or other products shall be made through private wharfage, but must go over specified privately owned public service railroads to so called "national" ports.  Products destined for local consumption or storage at a warehouse at a national port may be "privately" exported but imposed a specific tax for exportations made privately.  This Memorandum to the Secretary of State explanins in detail the Tarafá Bill and its effect on US owned sugar mills specifically the Punta Alegre, Baraguá, Trinidad and Soledad properties of The Punta Alegre Sugar Co.

Tarafá heirs José Miguel, Josefina and Laura Tarafá Govín and Alicia Mendoza the widow of Antonio Tarafá Govín continued to own the sugar mills until 1960 when they were nationalized by the Fidel Castro regime.

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[1] Regis Du Repaire de Truffin generally known in Cuba as Regino Ruffin was born in Santa Clara Province in 1857 to French parents. He received his bachelors degree from the College of Sainte Barbe in Paris and always retained his French citizenship. After finishing his studies in France he returned to Cuba and established R. Truffin & Cia. dedicated to the export of molasses and raw sugar. He was principal in the Cuba Distilling Co. and in Central Mercedes and Central San Juan Bautista. He was Vice President of Cuba Cane Sugar Corp., President of Manati Sugar Co. and President of the Cia. Cubana de Jarcia.